<\/a><\/div>\nA comma or not following an “unofficial” speech tag? When you write a true opening speech tag (he said, she responded, he asked), you need a comma separating it from your quoted words:<\/p>\n She said, “I love to write Language Lady blog posts.”<\/b><\/p>\n
However, if you write an “unofficial” opening speech tag (According to Websters Dictionary<\/i>, kindness is or Kindness can be defined as), do not place a comma before your quoted words. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> According to Webster’s Dictionary<\/i>, kindness is “an act of compassion.”<\/p>\n Kindness can be defined as “an act of compassion.”<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
The “official” rule on this is that other than true speech tags with quoted material following, you can not use a comma between a verb and its object or a preposition and its object:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nNOT: According to Webster’s Dictionary, kindness is, “an act of compassion.” T<\/span>hat would be a comma between the verb is and its object (predicate nominative in this case…)<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nNOT: Kindness can be defined as, “an act of compassion.” T<\/span>hat would be a comma between the preposition as and its object (a phrasal object in this case).<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A comma or not following an “unofficial” speech tag? When you write a true opening speech tag (he said, she responded, he asked), you need a comma separating it from your quoted words: She said, “I love to write Language Lady blog posts.” However, if you write an “unofficial” opening speech tag (According to Websters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[628,640,82,632],"tags":[216,149,251,158],"yoast_head":"\n
The Comma and the "Unofficial" Speech Tag - Character Ink<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n